How to Grow Your Podcast Like a Boss
Tips and tools: sharing, series, platforms, guests, and launches
Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash
As I entered 2020 with my podcast almost two years old, I knew it was time to take it to the next level. You may be, too, with all this extra time we have to share value online and create communities stronger than ever.
I’ve learned a ton over the last two years of podcasting. No matter whether you haven’t started your podcast yet, you’re like me somewhere in the middle, or you are Rachel Hollis with millions of downloads monthly, there is always more to learn.
Did you know there are over 30 million podcast episodes out there? Isn’t that incredible for something that didn’t exist decades ago? Or, that the average person listens to seven podcast episodes weekly in 2020? If you love to share your story, tips, and tools, podcasting is incredible.
As I ended 2019 with a focus on alignment and freedom, my actions in life and business became simpler and faster. My podcasting results started increasing >300% in downloads alone weekly.
It is, and always will be, a journey in every area of life. Content, marketing, and monetizing is no different.
Stop playing small. Create, transform, and inspire. You are born to.
I’m sharing what I wish I knew about podcasting sooner to help you get results faster. You will learn step by step ways to increase sharing, create series, utilize platforms, increase guest features, and align your episodes to your launches in your business.
I will do my best to share with you immediately actionable steps for you, your show, and your community current and future.
I recommend you take each segment below and pause at each one to immediately spend 25 minutes applying what I shared.
Let's Grow Your Podcast Like a Boss.
Podcasting: It’s Way Beyond iTunes-Only Now
Podcasting has grown to integrations like are now available on Medium, Google Play, Podbean, Stitcher, iHeartRadio and more.
Consider where your podcast is now. Many of the platforms above are as simple as dropping your RSS feed (found where you publish your podcast).
Like Marie Forleo says, everything is figure-out-able.
#CREATEIT now. Add yourself to any platform you are not on yet.
Yes, now. I promise most of them take less that 15 min to do.
Tips and Tools to Grow Your Podcast in 2020
The more you become visible, the more barriers you will break in your brain. We all have fears. Fears of not being enough, fear of failure, fear of success, fear of the unknown plague us at different points in life.
You get to choose if you will believe those lies. Will you rise up and focus on faith over fear?
Sharing Your Show
So, you’ve started your show. Maybe you have 1, 2, 100 episodes rocking and rolling. Evaluate your channel art for a possible upgrade with Canva. Review your bio on your podcast. Finally, ask yourself — are you really sharing as much as you could be?
Here are some easy ways to grow your podcast:
Share on Medium, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, IG stories
Add in via your social calendar and tools like Hootsuite
Include in automations via IFTTT & similar tools
Share in Facebook communities on related threads
Ask your mom and friends to share and leave reviews
Pro tips:
Include a gift with your ask
Keep it simple & friendly
Examples:
In your episodes at the beginning, end, or trailer, ask people to share on social & offer a monthly give away.
Organically ask for reviews and give people shout-outs on your show.
Use a tool like Splice App or Animoto to use royalty-free background music to record with QuickTime or similar tools
I recently started doing this with my podcast: Create with Katrina Julia #nobrainer.
Photo by freestocks on Unsplash
Create a Regular Series
Thank you, Netflix, for reminding me of the power of series even though I only watch the one with Morgan Freeman.
Who else remembers incredible series like Full House, Who’s the Boss, and Family Matters? Growing up, I loved those shows. As I put together my 2020 vision and strategy, I received wisdom on ways to increase value, differentiation, and community on podcasts.
Our show already had themes of wellness, business, faith, and travel aligning to our courses and events. I realized the ease in creating themes right from the start.
However, I challenged myself to take things to the next level. I immediately thought of a series for the podcast, YouTube, and IGTV. I decided to simplify things on the blog by doing one long blog for each series, and segmenting the 3–7 pieces as a “series” on the show. There are exceptions to this depending on what you are sharing and how you want to share it.
For example, with our recent travel series, it included 7+ blogs, 10+ IGTV & YouTube Videos, and 7+ podcast episodes.
You can see how this aligned approach is strategic. We’ve already outlined an upcoming series including social media, influencer marketing for the influencer and entrepreneur, influencer marketing for collaborations, influencer marketing for brands, Faith First: Devaluing to Purity, and Wellness Wonder to name a few.
I’ll be sharing these articles from Medium and including a back-link to numerous others as well. This helps with gratitude and exposure for your platforms, increases credibility, and content simplification.
It’s super easy to outsource to a virtual assistant, too.
Podcast Platforms
Podcast platforms are powerful for exposure and creating community. Beyond the platforms, I mentioned earlier that for host shows, there are podcast platforms for the promotion.
As an entrepreneur, I believe in ongoing learning in various communities in wellness, marketing, faith, business, and travel. One community I am part of is Boss Babe. They have over one million followers on their community page on Instagram alone. I’m part of their Societe with Boss Babes around the globe.
As part of their Societe, we receive Success Kits. One of the Success Kits I took on, How to Launch and Grow a Successful Podcast with Melissa Monte of Mind Love, is incredible. I immediately went and applied several suggestions and thanked Melissa.
Pro tips
Join Podcast Global and local Facebook communities
Add your show to platforms like podcastguests.com
Learn about in-person communities like Podfest
Increase Guest Features
It’s important that your community gets to know you. I started with sharing features 15–25% of the time. Now, depending on the series, these may grow as high as 50% of a series. This is great because people that want to learn more about that area will keep coming back.
In addition, guests will be sharing on their social channels, as I shared about. Just like Better Marketing, after any feature, we send the links and suggested ways to share online.
I’ve hosted guests such as Kajabi, Tailwind, WeTravel from the marketing and brand side. From the entrepreneur side, I’ve hosted Jessica @easylivingtoday on IG, Eileen @lighttravelsfaster on IG, and more in creating community.
Recently, when one of the podcast platforms asked us if we wanted to be featured in their newsletter for guests, I said yes, of course. They provided this for free because everyone wins. Within less than a week, we had over 100 requests for guest features. We’ve already reached out to >20 with several opportunities for both blogs and podcasts.
I share these experiences so you see how simple it is, and how you may start growing your podcast like a boss too. Align your episodes to your launches in your business.
Podcast Integration to your Launch Strategy
Keep things flowing easily by seamlessly integrating your episodes and series to your launch strategy. For example, with wellness, we share value, guests, and mention our freebies library.
With travel, we mention our events and retreats and deadlines and dates. With social media and marketing, we mention other episodes, freebies, online courses. Depending on the content focus, I and/or we may mention how we work with brands.
Approach it the same way. Use it as an add-on to what you are already creating.
Pro tips
Adjust your current launch strategy
Add in episodes and series to your blogs and newsletter
Ask for feedback on any content people want
Offer exclusive discounts on podcasts only
Add your podcast to platforms like SkillShare, if you teach
Include intro-letters with freebies and your show on Substack
Take action. You’ll be amazed at your progress and people binging on your podcast before you know it.
Grow Your Podcast Like a Boss
As you grow, your podcast and business grow. By taking the steps in this guide, your podcast will grow like a boss faster than you think.
What is your next action step? Is it adding platforms and/or sharing on channels more? Are you thinking of creating a series on your podcast? Add your show to communities and platforms? Do you want to increase your guests, as well as your own features? Align your strategy with alignment to your show? Are you ready to shift your launch plan?
#Createit now.
If you love this post, you will love How to Grow Your Pinterest to 100,000 Like a Boss.
Thank you to Better Marketing for this feature and Niklas and the team.
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